Tag: Latin American
Pasticho Venezolano
Pasticho Venezolano
With Italy being a huge influence on their cuisine, pasticho is the Venezuelan version of lasagne. The use of soy sauce and worchestershire sauce is commonly used in Venezuelan cooking, giving the red sauce in the pasticho a unique flavor. This pasticho requires a lot of prep work, patience, and the willingness to do more dishes than you’d want. But this Venezuelan lasagne is unbelievably tasty. Instead of eating the whole pan yourself, portion out any leftovers and freeze down on a baking sheet. Place each portion in a vacuum sealed bag and vacuum seal. Place in the freezer until ready for use.
Ingredients
- 1 lb lasagne noodles prepared according to package directions
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1/2 cups parmesan cheese
Red Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 5 roma tomatoes diced
- 1 can tomato paste 6oz
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup red wine
White Sauce
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup flour
- 4 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Prepare lasagne noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside.
Red Sauce
- Heat up oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onions and garlic for 5 minutes.
- Add in the ground beef. Brown for 6 minutes. Season with soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
- Stir in the tomato paste. Cook for a minute.
- Add in the tomatoes and sugar. Cook down for 5 minutes. Season with the dried basil and oregano.
- Pour in the red wine. Simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
White Sauce
- Whisk butter and flour together in a pot over medium heat. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the milk. Whisk out the lumps.
- Whisk in the parmesan, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Cook for 4-5 minutes until the cream sauce thickens.
Pasticho Assembly
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Ladle a large scoop of white sauce to the bottom of a 9”x13” glass baking dish.
- Place a layer of noodles on the bottom.
- Ladle 1/3 of the red sauce over the noodles.
- Place another layer of noodles over the red sauce. Ladle another scoop of white sauce over the noodles. Top with 1/2 cup of mozzarella and a dusting of parmesan.
- Repeat the previous 3 steps 2 more times. Top the pasticho with the remaining white sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan.
- Cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and place under the broiler for 3-4 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Picanha Steaks
Picanha Steaks
Picanha is slowly growing in popularity due to restaurants like Fogo de Chao and other Brazilian steakhouses. Picanha is from the culotte muscle, which is the top flap of the whole top butt sirloin. That entire muscle is peeled off with the fat cap left untrimmed. The culotte muscle is cut with the grain into 3 large steaks.Traditionally, the culotte steaks are marinated in Brazilian sofrito(onion/garlic/olive oil purée) and placed on large skewers and grilled upright on an open flame. While that might be an issue for most people to replicate, there are other ways to duplicate the picanha. You can simply grill them, broil them, and even pan fry in a cast iron skillet like I did in this recipe.
Equipment
- food processor
- cast iron pan
Ingredients
- 1 whole culotte about 2.5lbs; untrimmed
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 head garlic peeled
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- coarse sea salt
- cracked black pepper
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Purée the onion, garlic, and olive oil in a food processor.
- Cut the culotte with the grain into 3 steaks.
- Marinate the steaks with the Brazilian sofrito in a gallon sized storage bag for 24 hours. Make sure to squeeze out the excess air.
- Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Place the steaks on a meat/fat side. Sear for 4 minutes.
- Flip the steaks to the other meat/fat side. Sear for 4 minutes.
- Flip the meat to the fat side facing down. Cook for 5 minutes to render out some of the fat.
- Flip the steaks to fat side up. Sear for 2 minutes.
- Remove the steaks from the skillet. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
- Thinly slice the steaks against the grain.
Cachapas (Venezuelan Corn Cakes)
Cachapas (Venezuelan Corn Cakes)
Corn is an important staple of Venezuelan cuisine. These cachapas are a thin pancake made out of corn, milk, eggs, and masa flour. They are served folded over, almost like an omelette, filled with a variety of cheeses such as cream cheese, mozzarella, and homemade farmer’s cheese. Besides the sweet cheese filled variety, there are large savory cachapas filled with meats, veggies, multiple sauces, etc; a lot like Venezuelan sandwiches.
Servings: 6 cachapas
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 2 cups corn
- 1/4 cup masa flour
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp butter for frying
Cheese Filling
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 1 oz queso fresco
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Blend the cream cheese, queso, and sugar in a food processor until smooth anc spreadable. Scoop out and set aside.
- Add all of the cachapas ingredients to the food processor.
- Process until smooth. Let sit for 10 minutes before using.
- Melt the butter on a griddle over medium heat. Ladle a 1/2 cup of the batter per cachapas into the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
- Flip.
- Place a good dollop of the cheese spread on the bottom half of each cachapas. Cook for 3 minutes.
